1. Field
Aspects relate to a method of manufacturing a roller blind for opening and closing a compartment, such as a tray, a storage compartment or a control panel, particularly for use in motor vehicles. Aspects further relate to a roller blind for a motor vehicle.
2. Discussion of Related Art
For motor vehicles, particularly vehicles in upscale executive and luxury classes, special requirements are placed on the visual appearance of the vehicle interior, such as the facing of control elements, storage compartments and the like, particularly in the region of the center console. Roller blinds, which allow a sliding opening and closing of the areas to be covered manually or automatically, are conventionally used in certain regions of a motor vehicle.
A roller blind may be constructed of stiff ribs, manufactured by injection molding, which are joined to each using a soft component. The ribs include guide pins for engaging slide tracks along which the roller blind is opened and closed. The slide path is usually configured such that the roller blind is reversed out of a substantially horizontal alignment upon opening of the roller blind. The soft component joining the ribs facilitates the reversing or rolling up of the roller blind.
EP 1 717 105 B1 describes a roller blind having on its upper side, which is the visible side or face of the roller blind, a soft component designed as padding that is arranged on support elements which are strung together. Examples of other roller blinds with padding provided on the face as the soft component are disclosed in EP 1 690 740 A1 and DE 10 2005 023 062 B3.
In conventional roller blinds fitted with a soft component that spans and joins a plurality of ribs, it may be impossible or fairly difficult to implement a curvature on the roller blind, particularly along the direction of extension of the ribs.
FIG. 1 illustrates a curved rib S of a roller blind with a soft component W attached thereto. The roller blind may opened and closed by being wound around a rotary axis D. The soft component W has “neutral fiber” points P which are neither compressed nor stretched when the soft component W changes direction around the rotary axis D.
For a roller blind curved in the transverse direction (the direction of extension of the ribs), the distances between the points of neutral fiber P and the rotary axis D differ. However, the distance traveled by a neutral fiber P when rotated around the rotary axis D depends on the distance between the neutral fiber P and the rotary axis D. The greater the distance between the neutral fiber P and the rotary axis D, the longer the distance to be travelled by the neutral fiber.
Due to different distances between the points of neutral fiber P and the rotary axis D, it becomes considerably more difficult or even impossible to unroll the roller blind if the soft component W joins a plurality or all the ribs to each other as a closed layer. Such an integral nature of the soft component may, however, be desirable for reasons associated with cost, stability, durability and/or functionality of the blind. It may also be desirable to have the ability to freely design the surface contour on the visible side of the roller blind. In particular, it may be desirable to implement curvatures of the roller blind along the transverse direction and/or the longitudinal direction, i.e., along the direction of extension of the ribs and/or along the direction of motion of the roller blind, without functional limitations.
Against this background, an object of the invention is to provide a roller blind and a method for the manufacture of a roller blind for opening and closing a tray, a storage compartment, a control panel or the like, particularly for use in motor vehicles, which enable more flexible contouring of the roller blind surface without functional limitations.